Iran’s president on Tuesday warned US “threats” against the Islamic Republic would only cause instability, as a US naval strike group led by an aircraft carrier took up a position in Middle Eastern waters.
Washington has not ruled out military intervention against Iran over its crackdown on protests — which rights groups say left thousands of people dead — and US President Donald Trump has dispatched the USS Abraham Lincoln to the area “just in case.” He has previously threatened military action against Iran but also indicated openness to dialogue.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian hit out at US “threats” in a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, saying they were “aimed at disrupting the security of the region and will achieve nothing other than instability.”
According to a statement from Saudi Arabi’s foreign ministry, the Saudi prince “affirmed during the call the kingdom’s position on respecting the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that the kingdom will not allow its airspace or its territory to be used for any military actions against” Iran.
The US also maintains several bases in the Middle East, prompting a commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to issue a warning to Iran’s neighbors on Tuesday.
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“Neighboring countries are our friends, but if their soil, sky, or waters are used against Iran, they will be considered hostile,” Mohammad Akbarzadeh, political deputy of the IRGC naval forces, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
Since Iran launched its bloody crackdown on protests earlier this month, accompanied by a blanket internet blackout, Trump has given mixed signals on intervention, which some opponents of the clerical leadership see as the only way to bring about change.
Iranians ride their motorbike past a huge banner of former Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani ahead of the sixth anniversary of his assassination, at Valiasr Square in Tehran, on December 31, 2025. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
“We have a big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela,” Trump told the Axios news site on Monday, weeks after the US military captured the Latin American nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro, and charged him with narcotics offenses.
But he added, “They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk.”
Tehran has previously said a channel of communication is open between Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff, despite the lack of diplomatic relations between the two foes.
Axios said Trump declined to discuss the options presented to him by his national security team, or which he prefers.
US President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on January 27, 2026. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
Iranian officials have in recent days appeared wary of pouring oil on the fire.
But the Hamshahri conservative newspaper on Tuesday quoted Revolutionary Guards spokesman Mohammad Ali Naini as saying that “if their aircraft carrier made a mistake and entered Iranian territorial waters, it would be targeted” — only for the paper to later retract the report and apologize to Naini.
The conservative Javan newspaper said Iran was “ready for a major response” and would seize the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key transit hub for energy supplies.
Meanwhile, an anti-US billboard has appeared in Tehran that appears to show an American aircraft carrier being destroyed.
Cars drive past an anti-US billboard installed on a building at Enqelab Square in Tehran on January 26, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
EU won’t place IRGC on terror list, due to French opposition
The EU is expected to sanction some 20 Iranian individuals and entities under its human rights rules this week, but is not expected to add the IRGC to its terrorist list due to opposition from France, officials said on Tuesday.
European Union foreign ministers will discuss the situation in Iran when they gather in Brussels on Thursday, and are expected to sign off on the new sanctions.
The new measures are expected to include export restrictions on components that Iran can use for the production of drones and missiles, bringing limitations into line with EU policy on Russia. Some Iranian individuals and entities will also be sanctioned for providing support to Russia, the officials said.
Set up after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shiite clerical ruling system, the IRGC has great sway in the country, controlling swaths of the economy and armed forces, and overseeing Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
Iranians walk past a billboard showing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with anti-US rhetoric in Tehran on January 27, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
While some of the individuals expected to be sanctioned will include members of the IRGC, adding the group as a whole to the bloc’s terrorist list looks unlikely for now, as that would require unanimity.
“France has made it clear that they do not believe it would be useful to list the IRGC for now and want to keep communications open,” said one European diplomat, adding that Paris was also worried it could harm efforts to bring back two of its citizens currently living at the embassy in Tehran after being released from prison last year.
Pro-regime buyer snatches Iran rights site’s domain name
The domain name of the Iran Justice group website, which documents alleged human rights violations by the Islamic Republic, has been purchased and is now publishing “pro‑regime content” from Iran, its president told AFP on Tuesday.
Paris‑based lawyer and rights activist Chirinne Ardakani said it was “a destabilization and propaganda operation apparently orchestrated by Iranian agents in the digital sphere to sabotage the name of our association and its commitment to exposing the crimes committed.”
Traffic rolls along a main thoroughfare under a banner with images of past and present world leaders and opponents of the Islamic Republic regime, which reads in Farsi, “Domino fall,” in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on January 19, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
The Iran Justice site reentered the public domain in recent days because the association had not renewed its license, Ardakani said. When the group went to renew it, they “had the very unpleasant surprise” that it had been purchased by someone else.
The new version of the site, whose homepage now displays the flag of the Islamic Republic, presents itself as a news outlet on Iran and the Arab world.
The site is registered under the name “Ano Nymous”, while the previous registration had been made under the name of a law firm at the group’s professional address.
“The aim is to sow confusion about an alleged complicity of associations with the Islamic Republic. The narrative of the ‘fake opposition’ is regularly used by the regime to discredit dissidents,” said Ardakani, saying she is considering legal action.
Ardakani founded Iran Justice, made up of legal experts and human rights activists, in October 2022, after the start of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran, sparked by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.
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